Parliamentary Secretary for Finance and Revenue Saad Wasim Sheikh told the National Assembly that the government is reviewing the 18% sales tax on locally produced cotton in the upcoming federal budget.
Responding to a calling attention notice by MNA Sehar Kamran, he acknowledged that it is indeed unfortunate that this high tax rate is imposed on local cotton.
He explained that the 18% sales tax applies only to domestically produced cotton, while imported cotton under the Export Facilitation Scheme (EFS) is exempt from the levy.
He stressed the need for a fair and equal tax system. “There should be no discrimination,” he said, urging that both local and imported cotton should be taxed uniformly.
Saad Wasim further informed the House that the issue was recently discussed in a meeting between the finance minister and representatives of cotton ginners. During the discussion, a proposal was considered to remove the sales tax on local cotton completely, while keeping the 18% tax on imported cotton.
He clarified that the exemption on imported cotton is only available to importers registered under the EFS.
Parliamentary Secretary for Finance further informed the National Assembly that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has registered 2,391,566 new taxpayers through the Tax Laws Amendment process.
During the Question Hour in the National Assembly, he revealed that by April 29, 2025, the total number of tax return filers had reached 6,594,832. Of these, 106,118 were Association of Persons (AOPs), while 93,749 companies also submitted their tax returns.
To another question, he informed the house on the taxes collected by mobile phone companies from consumers. From July 2024 to March 2025, mobile companies collected a total of Rs 84.25 billion in taxes, which were subsequently deposited into the national treasury, he said.
In a separate question, Sheikh Saad Waseem also disclosed that the number of Roshan Digital Accounts (RDA) opened by overseas Pakistanis has reached 805,009. He stated that a total of $9.98 billion has been received through these accounts. The RDA initiative allows overseas Pakistanis to open accounts in 10 different foreign currencies, he added.
